Welcome to Part 3 of our Web Site Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to automate traffic to your site using WordPress.
In Part One of this article series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to generating automated traffic …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically start generating traffic is add web content regularly!)
In Part 2, we discussed the setup phase. We helped you understand the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part two we show you how to set up a WordPress website or blog on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration stage of the traffic automation process. We will show you how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically begin bringing traffic whenever you add fresh content on your web site.
WordPress Web Traffic System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to drive more traffic to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. Also, the business landscape is becoming ever more competitive worldwide and businesses are looking for every advantage they can that can help you improve their results online.
The ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a tremendous advantage. For WordPress users, having an expertly configured website means having an immediate advantage from the very start.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to understand the main difference:
An expertly configured WordPress website gives you a professional web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps required to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this point here is a little story.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Things were running smoothly in the gizmo factory when everything suddenly ground to a stop.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the floor manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Promptly after arriving, the expert walked directly to the main control box. After staring at the wiring board for what seemed like 3 minutes, the expert then took out a tiny hammer and made a gentle tap about 1 inch from the left-hand side of the control unit.
Immediately, the plant came back to life.
The manager was relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the factory manager received an invoice for $5,000.
The manager dialled the expert, demanding to know why they had been charged so much for so little time spent delivering a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, an invoice statement arrived on the manager’s desk. Upon opening the envelope, this is what he saw:
The main challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive new traffic to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the plant stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for spending years acquiring the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WordPress website or blog configured so all you have to do is publish new content and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make complex things look easy, it rarely turns out to be that way.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party accounts you need to set up and activate to get certain outcomes
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that everything functions to plan, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring one or two plugins, clicking a button, or configuring some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website involves the integration of many parts including your web server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we were to create a simple flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing the configuration process)
Let’s take a look at these steps.
Configuring The Web Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for website installation purposes. We’re talking about fine-tuning settings and options in your hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic you can attract will be unwelcome traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes things like configuring spam protection and securing server files, to configuring your domain and email redirections, setting up 404 redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like emails, page error redirections, etc?)
Once your web server settings have been fine-tuned and configured (if required), the next step is to configure various external sites and online solutions.
External Sites
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all of your content gets published to a central location (your site) and from there, it gets syndicated automatically to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once you incorporate these external platforms into your system, content linked back to your website will be automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social media sites, even to users of the platform itself. Your business will be given exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some external sites and solutions will need to be set up before configuring your site’s settings to speed up the configuration process and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Webmaster Tools
(Google Webmaster Tools – create a Google-friendly site)
Google Webmaster Tools lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides you with essential data, tools and reports about your website.
After setting up your account and entering site details, use this information to integrate and automate traffic-related settings in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing efforts, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your account, account information can be added to WordPress using a simple Google Analytics plugin used with other applications and reporting tools.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your account with Bing, you can use your details to automate web traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to build a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which various WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and drive new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts before you can configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and pages set up with all of the well-known social networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just choose the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content syndication tools (we cover some of these tools in greater detail in the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are many online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are paid services.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add an RSS feed from your WordPress site …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various platforms you can incorporate into your traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore your options and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external service accounts, it’s time to configure your site’s settings.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some of the important areas.
Global Settings
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings menu that allows you to configure your site’s global settings …
(WordPress dashboard menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Settings Menu – General Settings Section)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings area contains one of the most powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification systems available to WordPress users …
(WordPress Settings – Writing Settings)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally configured your site settings to prevent search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services text area
By default, when WordPress is installed, only one service is available …
(WordPress Update Services)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can have an influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content displays to users in RSS readers and RSS email campaigns, and could affect someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from summaries, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is ticked or not.
Generally, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to ping various update services whenever a new post gets published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search indexing spiders from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings Section)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings)
Here are some of the options for configuring your search-friendly URLS …
(Configuring permalink URLs)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using permalinks in WordPress here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
The WordPress developer community makes available thousands of plugins that can add almost every kind of functionality to your site, including plugins with features that help to improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to bring more visitors to your site
Blog Defender Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No website or blog is guaranteed immunity from being targeted.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to botnet and hacker attacks.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google to index, it also lets you specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to easily share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
There are many social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Most social plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which users can unlock by sharing your page.
Configuring WordPress Theme Settings For Traffic Generation
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, some themes also give you built-in features that let you improve SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) allow you to configure settings for better traffic results)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing features to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Additional Sections To Configure For Improved Traffic Flow
Last (but by no means least) in the traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in traffic numbers, it’s important to plan not only for both good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people begin to visit your website.
If you do business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your site stays compliant with government laws and regulations.
(Is Your Website Or Blog Compliant?)
If you need help understanding why it’s important to have a compliant website, see this article:
WordPress Tags And Categories
WordPress categories and tags help search engines index your pages, which improves traffic.
(WordPress categories help search engines index your pages, which helps you get more traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post categories and tags should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that the post categories and tags you have set up.
Add A WordPress Site Map
A site map that displays all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your online content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. Although Google will index your site just from an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget This!
When visitors searching online for your site type in the wrong web address or click on a dead link, they are greeted with a 404 Not Found error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
A 404 page can redirect confused visitors to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up in your web server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Process – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you have to do then is publish great content regularly to begin bringing new traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of different elements and external web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process typically takes some web professionals a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is explained in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section 3
To read the rest of this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online and drive traffic sustainably using a WordPress website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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